Ministry of Defence

Defence Estate Rationalisation

Earl Howe: My hon. Friend the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State and Minister for Defence Veterans, Reserves and Personnel (Mark Lancaster) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement. The Ministry of Defence (MOD) is nearing the completion of an ambitious Estate Optimisation Strategy programme which will provide a plan for a smaller, but significantly better Defence Estate to meet the needs of the Armed Forces. The MOD expects to announce the finalised Estate Optimisation Strategy later this year and can today confirm the expected release of 13 sites, shown below. These will contribute some £225 million toward the MOD’s £1 billion target for land release sales as set out in Spending Review 2015. These sites also contribute to the Government commitment to provide land for 160,000 homes in this Parliament. The intent to dispose of these 13 sites will provide land for up to 17,017 homes (of which some 12,565 are expected to materialise in this Parliament). In addition to the sites announced in January and March of this year, this represents the expected provision of land for up to 14,700 homes this Parliament against the MOD target of 55,000. The remainder of the target will be met through other rationalisation activity including the Reserves estate, the Training estate and MOD accommodation.  The Estate Optimisation Strategy aims to better support military capability and force generation; allow the formation of clusters of sites which facilitate the collocation of similar functions and thereby reduce running costs through shared resources; as well as dispose of under-utilised sites for which there is no longer a long-term Defence requirement. Over the coming weeks further work carried out in consultation with all stakeholders including the Trade Unions will determine the future reprovision of each site. The release of land by the MOD has the potential to provide land for new homes and we will continue to engage with impacted Local Authorities to determine how the Department’s assessment of housing unit allocation against each site may be considered as part of the authority’s Local Plan. I acknowledge that these moves will have an impact upon civilian and military staff; the Department is making arrangements to provide for units and functions based at sites which will not have a future Defence requirement. I will make a further announcement setting out the Estate Optimisation Strategy with details on the sequencing and timing of these moves later this year.  RAF Henlow (Bedfordshire)Middlewick Ranges (Essex)Amport House (Andover)Land at Harley Hill (Catterick)Chalgrove Airfield (Oxford) Transferred to the Homes and Communities AgencyColerne Airfield (Chippenham)Azimghur Barracks (Chippenham)Prince William of Gloucester Barracks (Grantham)Old Dalby (Melton Mowbray)Venning Barracks (Telford)Parsons Barracks (Donnington)Southwick Park (Fareham)Royal Marines Stonehouse (Plymouth)